Inside the FedEx Panda Express and the Logistics Behind It

"The only way we can find out what a person is capable of doing is to give that person the opportunity of trying and the responsibility of producing results." James E. Casey, co-founder of UPS, 1948 The quote above sounds like the philosophy of a patient, generous boss. But according to Marc Levinson's new book, The UPS Man, the same man built a company where managers understood they were to "ignore the limits of the law, if necessary" to force out competitors and keep customers. In this episode of Art of Supply, Kelly Barner explains why everyone in supply chain and logistics should read it, covering: - How UPS mastered centralization and scale decades before anyone called it logistics, and why it had no choice - The long, creative and sometimes shaky relationship between UPS and the rules, including the Interstate Commerce Commission - The gap between the UPS story most of us know and the one Levinson pieced together without the company's help   Links: The UPS Man: James E. Casey and the Creation of Modern Logistics, by Marc Levinson: https://a.co/d/0avyw6Qy  Kelly Barner on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-barner-6884443/  Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/art-of-supply-6895142546301960193  Art of Supply on AOP: http://www.artofsupply.com  Subscribe to the Art of Procurement Newsletter: https://resources.artofprocurement.com/art-of-procurement-podcast-subscribe   

"TQL and C.H. Robinson set the price and illegal carriers accept these bargain-basement bids often with no questions asked." - Stevens Trucking Co., et al. v. C.H. Robinson Company, Inc., d/b/a C.H. Robinson Worldwide, et al., Case No. 2:26-cv-00869, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas (Marshall Division) That's the accusation at the center of a federal racketeering lawsuit six family-owned trucking companies filed in September against two of the largest freight brokers in the country. According to the lawsuit, some TQL loads were posted at $1.60 a mile, at a time when ATRI puts the average cost to run a truck at $2.33 a mile. The carriers say the price itself is the proof. The brokers say the market sets the price, and the plaintiffs simply lost to a lower bidder. In this episode of Art of Supply, Kelly Barner covers:  - What the carriers are accusing C.H. Robinson and TQL of, and why they reached for a law built to fight the mob  - How the brokers are firing back, from "no freight broker sets rates" to a push to move the case to Ohio  - Why a 2006 Supreme Court case about unpaid sales tax may decide whether this lawsuit survives at all   Links: The $604 Million Freight Broker Liability Verdict: https://artofprocurement.com/blog/supply-the-604-million-freight-broker-liability-verdict  Kelly Barner on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-barner-6884443/  Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/art-of-supply-6895142546301960193  Art of Supply on AOP: http://www.artofsupply.com  Subscribe to the Art of Procurement Newsletter: https://resources.artofprocurement.com/art-of-procurement-podcast-subscribe   

On Sunday, September 27, the most-tracked flight in the world wasn't carrying a single traditional passenger. FedEx flight FX9756 left Chengdu, China, with two giant pandas aboard, Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, bound for a 10-year stay at Zoo Atlanta. The pair was billed as an envoy of friendship between China and the U.S., but behind the photo op was a door-to-door logistics operation that started months before takeoff: a federal permit, a month of crate training, a dedicated Boeing 777 freighter, a police escort, and a team of people on both sides of the Pacific. In this episode of Art of Supply, Kelly Barner cover: - The federal paper trail required before two bears listed as endangered under U.S. law could legally make the trip  - How you move live cargo by truck, plane and truck again without stressing it out - The people who traveled with the pandas, and the ones who got to Atlanta first   Links: Kelly Barner on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-barner-6884443/  Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/art-of-supply-6895142546301960193  Art of Supply on AOP: http://www.artofsupply.com  Subscribe to the Art of Procurement Newsletter: https://resources.artofprocurement.com/art-of-procurement-podcast-subscribe   

"When you call it a pilot, we realized that it basically puts a label on it so that it's not on the critical path. It's not actually real work." - Çetin Meriçli, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder, Atlas Robotics Warehouses are not easy places to work - for people or for robots. Pallet labels end up on the wrong corner. Someone leaves an empty pallet in the middle of the floor. The plan changes 30 seconds after it's made. In a warehouse, exception is the rule, and that's why most warehouses are still unautomated despite decades of progress in robotics. In this episode, I speak with Çetin Meriçli, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of Atlas Robotics, about what physical AI changes, and why the way companies test warehouse robots may be setting them up to fail before they start. LIsten in to hear Çetin and Kelly Barner discuss, - Why physical AI is more than a new name for traditional automation - The ordinary warehouse moments that people handle without thinking, and that robots find hardest - Why Atlas runs "probation" deployments instead of pilots, and how success is defined before day one Links: Çetin Meriçli on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cetinmericli/  Atlas Robotics: https://www.atlas-robotics.com/  Kelly Barner on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-barner-6884443/  Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/art-of-supply-6895142546301960193  Art of Supply on AOP: http://www.artofsupply.com  Subscribe to the Art of Procurement Newsletter: https://resources.artofprocurement.com/art-of-procurement-podcast-subscribe   

"Decisions regarding specific authorizations will not be made publicly available." — U.S. Commerce Department, Connected Vehicle Rule Two cars come off the same assembly line in South Carolina. They have the same software stack, according to the company that builds one of them. Starting with model year 2027, the Volvo EX90 can keep being sold in the United States. The Polestar 3 can't. Both companies are owned by China's Geely. Commerce won't say why one passed and one failed, and under its own rule, it doesn't have to. In this episode of the Art of Supply podcast, Kelly Barner covers: - Why the auto supply chain's dependence on China is so hard to unwind, from the hardware all the way down to the source code - How two companies under the same Chinese parent got opposite answers from Washington - Why Ford's China-built Lincoln Nautilus suddenly didn't need permission, and what Congress wants to do next Links: Kelly Barner on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-barner-6884443/  Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/art-of-supply-6895142546301960193  Art of Supply on AOP: http://www.artofsupply.com  Subscribe to the Art of Procurement Newsletter: https://resources.artofprocurement.com/art-of-procurement-podcast-subscribe   

"Am I just making worse decisions way more quickly than I ever would before, and they're compounding and driving me down the wrong path?" – Russell Halper, Founder & Managing Director, Insight Kitchen Supply chain should be AI's ideal proving ground. It has plenty of data, plenty of decisions, and plenty of problems no one has solved. So why did a recent AI conference with 11,000 attendees have only three talks about supply chain? In this episode of Art of Supply, Kelly talks with Russell Halper, Founder & Managing Director of Insight Kitchen, about the gap between AI's highlight reel and what it takes to get results inside a physical network. Russell has spent his career at the intersection of data science and supply chain.  Listen to this episode to hear: - Why a forecast has to beat a human planner, while an agent only has to come close - What makes supply chain harder for AI than writing code or email - How to build an AI roadmap around mile markers rather than a destination Links: Russell Halper on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/russellhalper/  Insight Kitchen: https://insightkitchen.ai/  Kelly Barner on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-barner-6884443/  Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/art-of-supply-6895142546301960193  Art of Supply on AOP: http://www.artofsupply.com  Subscribe to the Art of Procurement Newsletter: https://resources.artofprocurement.com/art-of-procurement-podcast-subscribe   

"We are working this case, but no trucks were stolen. Just the cargo." — Montclair, California Police Department On August 17th, someone with fake paperwork walked into an Anheuser-Busch distribution center in Montclair, California, and was handed a load of Pabst Blue Ribbon. Nobody broke in. Nobody stole a truck. One hour later, they did it again - same process, same warehouse. Within weeks, Pabst had a countdown clock, their CEO on TikTok, a $20,000 reward, and a sympathetic comment from KitKat. It's a great story. It's also an example of the logistics-based crime that cost shippers in the U.S. and Canada nearly $725 Million last year. In this episode of Art of Supply, Kelly Barner covers: - Why almost nothing in the Montclair pickup belonged to Pabst: not the building, not the truck, not the handoff - How strategic cargo theft works, and why Pabst is in increasingly crowded company - Whether a viral campaign should turn cargo theft into a punchline  Links: Inside the Rise of Cargo Theft (AOS, September 2026): https://artofprocurement.com/blog/supply-inside-the-rise-of-cargo-theft  Tracking the Logistics of a $400K Lobster Heist (AOS, January 2026): https://artofprocurement.com/blog/supply-tracking-the-logistics-of-a-400k-lobster-heist  Kelly Barner on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-barner-6884443/  Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/art-of-supply-6895142546301960193  Art of Supply on AOP: http://www.artofsupply.com  Subscribe to the Art of Procurement Newsletter: https://resources.artofprocurement.com/art-of-procurement-podcast-subscribe   

"IEEPA, in many ways, I called it the sledgehammer. It was like everything, everywhere, all at once." - Jeff Rittener, International Trade and Compliance Advisor, Rittener Trade Services For more than 30 years, Jeff Rittener, International Trade and Compliance Advisor at Rittener Trade Services, built and led Intel's global trade organization. Now he has his own consulting practice and podcast, Rittener Reflections, and is a Member of the Tesari AI National Security Council. In this episode, Jeff walks Kelly Barner through the legal tools behind the current wave of tariffs, and what happens when one of them gets struck down by the Supreme Court. LIsten in to hear Jeff and Kelly explore: - Why the Supreme Court ruled the administration's IEEPA tariffs illegal, and what replaced them within hours - Why Section 301 and Section 232 tariffs are built to last while others aren't - The 1930s law now being used to hit Canada with a 50 percent tariff, and why one company is already relocating production because of it - Why the IEEPA refund process favors large companies like Apple and Amazon over small importers Links: Jeff Rittener on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffrittener/  Rittener Reflections Podcast: https://rittenerreflections.com/  No Trade Is Free, Robert Lighthizer: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0063282135?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback  Kelly Barner on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-barner-6884443/  Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/art-of-supply-6895142546301960193  Art of Supply on AOP: http://www.artofsupply.com  Subscribe to the Art of Procurement Newsletter: https://resources.artofprocurement.com/art-of-procurement-podcast-subscribe   

"I want your phone numbers, I want your internet domain, I want everything, your PO box, everything. Now I've become you." - Keith Lewis, Vice President of Operations at Verisk CargoNet A purchased MC (motor carrier) number, sometimes bought for as little as $5,000, can turn a stranger into a fully credentialed trucking company overnight. It can make them look trustworthy enough that you hand them a truckload full of valuable inventory. Keith Lewis, Vice President of Operations at Verisk CargoNet, spent 26 years in law enforcement before joining CargoNet's crime analyst unit, and in this episode he walks Kelly Barner through how cargo theft has evolved from truck-stop break-ins into an organized, border-spanning business chasing the highest-value freight in the network. In this episode of the Art of Supply podcast, Keith and Kelly explore: - Why a single load bound for an AI data center can be worth $20 to $30 million — and how that's changed what thieves target - How purchased MC numbers and misdirected loads let criminals become "legitimate" carriers in a matter of days - Why a $400,000 lobster theft and a $400,000 copper theft have completely different endings - Why most stolen freight is never recovered, and the one document that determines whether it can be Links: Keith Lewis on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keith-lewis-08b55817/  Kelly Barner on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-barner-6884443/  Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/art-of-supply-6895142546301960193  Art of Supply on AOP: http://www.artofsupply.com  Subscribe to the Art of Procurement Newsletter: https://resources.artofprocurement.com/art-of-procurement-podcast-subscribe   

"We are on borrowed time." - Army Major General John Ferrari On July 20th, President Trump signed an executive order making it dramatically harder for defense contractors to buy critical materials from China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. Seven days later, the U.S. Army handed Ford and GM prototype contracts to build a new heavy infantry squad vehicle on the theory that Detroit can build trucks faster and cheaper than the traditional defense industrial base. Nobody has explained how the new restrictions and speed expectations are supposed to work at the same time. In this episode of the Art of Supply podcast, Kelly Barner covers: - What the U.S. Army asked Ford and GM for and what the new sourcing rules now forbid them from buying to build it - Why a bomber plant outside Ypsilanti is the most useful data point in this story, and why the lesson everyone takes from it is backwards - The second rulebook already two years into the same experiment that might give us an early look at what to expect here   Links: Kelly Barner on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-barner-6884443/  Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/art-of-supply-6895142546301960193  Art of Supply on AOP: http://www.artofsupply.com  Subscribe to the Art of Procurement Newsletter: https://resources.artofprocurement.com/art-of-procurement-podcast-subscribe